KPEN 101.3 FM, San Francisco:

The Complete KPEN Collection

“Proud to be Northern California’s most-listened-to
FM station, according to Western Union survey…”

James Gabbert founded KPEN with Gary Gielow in 1957

At noon on Sunday, October 27, 1957, from a 120-year-old adobe hut on Kings Mountain overlooking the San Francisco Peninsula, Stanford University students James Gabbert and Gary Gielow fired up their transmitter and placed KPEN on the air with 1,490 watts at 101.3 megacycles on the FM band, launching a radio station that would become a local institution.

On August 25, 1959, KPEN’s power was increased to 35,000 watts from its new transmitter site on San Bruno Mountain, making its high-fidelity monaural signal available to a greater number of audio enthusiasts around the Bay Area.

KPEN began test broadcasts in multiplex stereo in July 1961 (receiving full FCC authorization on August 10, 1961), becoming the first station west of the Mississippi using this method of transmission, at which time “Excursions In Sound” became “Excursions In Stereo.”

In December 1968, KPEN became KIOI and began announcing itself under the trademarked “K-101” identifier to more closely associate itself with its position on the FM dial.

Mr. Gabbert continued as principal owner of the station until October 1980 when it was sold for $12-million, at the time a record for an FM station. He would later own San Francisco’s KOFY-TV (Channel 20) and two Bay Area radio stations that were also known as KOFY (1050 AM and 98.9 FM), as well as the legendary Oakland soul station, KDIA.

Note that another local station, originally known as KPGM, adopted the KPEN call letters in December 1969, one month after they became available. That station, located in Los Altos and broadcasting on 97.7 FM, was not related to Mr. Gabbert’s station.

THE STORY OF KPEN – AVAILABLE NOW!

Read the complete history of this historic station. The “Story of KPEN” by Gary M. Gielow.

1964 KPEN Presents “War Of The Worlds,” April 17, 1964:

The KPEN Stereo Drama Workshop, under the direction of James Gabbert, presents an updating of Orson Welles’ historic “War Of The Worlds” broadcast, transplanted from New Jersey to the Bay Area. The KPEN version features several well-known radio personalities, including Wayne Jordan and Terry Smith, and KPEN co-general manager Gary Gielow. The recording was made in 1964 by John Bigbee, who generously provided a copy to the Bay Area Radio Museum for presentation here.

1965 KPEN Presents “War Of The Worlds,” (1965?):

An alternate version of “War Of The Worlds,” presented on KPEN presumably sometime late in 1965. (A song featured in the broadcast, “The Sound Of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel, was released in September 1965.) This recording, which features Bill Browning as the music program host from the KPEN Penthouse, was generously provided to the Bay Area Radio Museum by Michael Santo.

1967 James Gabbert on KPEN, January 11, 1967:

Mr. Gabbert notes that he has moved to mornings after doing afternoons on Stereo 101 for the past nine years. In this fair recording (in mono), he plays a familiar mix of good music and is joined by Hap Harper for airborne traffic reports and Michael Barrow with news. (The date of this recording was triangulated, based on the news item announcing Frank Sinatra, Jr.’s engagement to an airline stewardess “yesterday.”) Courtesy of Hap Harper.